Effect

This move effect may be in need of research. Reason:Can it call moves from an ally (and allied inactive Pokémon) in a Multi Battle in Generation III?You can discuss this on the talk page.

Assist randomly selects an eligible move from all of the moves known by other Pokémon in the user's party allies (including fainted Pokémon) and executes it. If no other Pokémon in the user's party know eligible moves, Assist fails. Assist can call a move even if that move is disabled for the user.

From Generation IV onward, Assist is unable to call a move from an allied Pokémon belonging to a different trainer in a Multi Battle.

In Generation V only, Assist can use moves known by unhatched Eggs in the party. In a wild Double Battle, a wild Pokémon that uses Assist can use a move the other wild Pokémon knows.

If powered up by a Normalium Z into Z-Assist, it will turn the called move into its respective Z-Move.

Uncallable moves

This move effect may be in need of research. Reason:Uncallable moves in Generation VII and Mystery Dungeon (if any), whether Shadow moves are callableYou can discuss this on the talk page.

Assist cannot call itself or any of the following moves marked with a ✓:

Trivia

In Generation III, the status screen erroneously states that the move has 100% accuracy, even though it targets the user (thus it ignores accuracy and evasion checks). The move called by Assist still has to undergo accuracy and evasion checks as normal, however.

The Japanese name for this move, ねこのて Neko no Te (Cat's Paw), is likely a reference to the saying 猫の手も借りたい neko no te mo karitai, which translates to "I would even like to borrow a cat's hands" ("I would even like a cat to assist me"), which means "I need all the help I can get". This is reflected by the way the move works, and that many feline Pokémon are capable of learning it.